An angry passenger was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight. The passenger was later discovered to be MMA fighter Aaron “Tex” Johnson.
TikToker Kkm (@mrskk0404) shares what happened in a series of viral videos. In a follow-up storytime posted after the initial video blew up, Kkm says the MMA fighter was “already obviously, like, agitated and loud at the gate,” alerting everyone boarding the flight to his presence.
She sat in row two in the aisle seat, and Johnson sat in row three in the aisle seat on the opposite side of her. “Apparently there had been some kind of verbal altercation between him and a woman in the front row over her bag,” she says. She says she doesn’t have details on how the interaction went down, but Johnson was “causing a scene before [she] got on the plane.”
The TikToker says a man sat in the seat across the aisle from her, right in front of Johnson. She suspects the man was new to flying and mistakenly believed his personal items should go under his seat instead of the seat in front of him. Kkm says the man pulled the Johnson’s drawstring bag from under his seat and asked if it belonged to the other man. Johnson claimed it as his and said it was where it was supposed to be.
‘This Guy’s Gonna Be A Problem’
“They had words, but it didn’t seem like anything absurd,” Kkm says. “I honestly wasn’t really paying attention because I didn’t know that he was going to blow up the way he did.”
The confused man, she says, sat down, but a man in the fourth row then pointed out Johnson to a flight attendant and said, “This guy’s gonna be a problem. You might wanna get him off the flight.”
She says the flight attendant called the gate agent so they could chat with Johnson. But he allegedly refused to get up and threatened to call the police and a lawyer, saying that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
The Incident Was Filmed
She then directs viewers to a video she reposted that covers where the interaction went from that point.
In the repost, Johnson says he does not need to talk to anybody because he did nothing wrong and his bag was in storage. He says unless the worker he’s talking to calls the police—which he also intends to do, in addition to calling a lawyer—the worker is “f—–.” Johnson tells the worker not to touch him as the worker walks away.
Then, he turns around and confronts the man who reported him to the flight attendant. “Sit down, man,” someone says. He repeats this, and suddenly the plane erupts into noise as passengers realize something is going on.
Johnson repeatedly yells at the man behind him to hit him and calls the man a loser. A flight attendant intervenes to break up the situation, telling the passenger behind Johnson that it was not worth it. Johnson took offense to this, saying, “You’re fighting me over him? He’s trying to fight me.” Importantly, viewers cannot see or hear the man in the fourth row threatening the fighter with violence. The first audible threat of violence came from Johnson.
After yelling that the other man is a loser some more, Johnson then clambers over his seat in an attempt to reach the other man. Three flight attendants attempt to stop him, and one finally does by holding his arms up and away from the other passenger.
Johnson repeatedly screams “assault!” and “abuse!” after asking the flight attendant not to touch him. She responds by telling him to shut his mouth.
The Viral Videos
This then leads to the events of the video that initially went viral.
In that video, Johnson is out of his seat as several flight attendants direct him off the plane while passengers scream for him to leave. He says he needs to get his bag, and the attendant tells him to get his bag and go. “You’re a loser!” he screams again at the man in the fourth row.
The man replies, “Your mama’s a loser.” Johnson retorts that at least his mother took care of him and questions whether the other man takes care of his kids.
Tired of the altercation, the flight attendants continue to usher him off the plane. He shouts, “He started this!” But no one wants to hear it. The flight attendants continue to point, directing him off the plane. And passengers shout “bye” while clapping in celebration of his departure.
When he is almost off the plane, he turns back around and shouts in a flight attendant’s face, “Assault! Abuse! Call the cops! Don’t touch me!”
He continues shooting at three flight attendants from outside of the plane. Johnson does this for approximately a minute and 49 seconds while a passenger repeatedly shouts “off!” in the background.
Carried Away On A Gurney
Kkm also directed viewers to another viral video, which has the most views of all of them at 10.7 million, showing Johnson being taken through La Guardia airport after being kicked off the flight.
He is strapped to a gurney being wheeled through the airport by several officers. Johnson screams expletives before shouting, “I’m being treated like a Black person right now.”
@mrskk0404 Welcome to the no fly list #southwest #nyc #atl
The Man Is Identified
Kkm did not identify the man in the video. However, commenters on the initial viral video, which received 424,200 views, identified the man as MMA fighter Aaron “Tex” Johnson. Both the Daily Mail and the New York Post have since reported that the man is Johnson.
Several commenters commended the female flight attendants for quickly springing into action to resolve the situation. Meanwhile, the men that had gathered around the flight attendants were criticized for not intervening as Johnson screamed in their faces.
Can His Actions Get Him On The Federal No-Fly List?
The flight seems to have been going from New York City to Atlanta. In the captions of two of the videos, TikTokers guessed the man would be put on the no-fly list.
FBI spokesperson Paul Bresson told NBC, “The primary answer is no. The guy who’s had too much to drink and is causing problems or picking fights with people on the plane? That is not going to put you on the (federal) no-fly list. Now, it could get you on the airline’s (banned) list. That’s different.”
BroBible contacted Kkm via TikTok comment and direct message. BroBible also contacted Southwest Airlines via press email and Tex Johnson via Facebook direct message.